Troy Taylor: Statements misleading

In your Feb. 10 paper, under the “Letters” section, I read the rebuttal to a previous letter by Dale Potter. In this rebuttal, James Merett made several statements that are completely misleading.

Most of his false information can be refuted by simply Googling his statements.

Because of word limits with the Daily Press, I will only address the first one.

He started by stating that “many of our Founding Fathers were Deists and not Christians.” This statement is completely misleading.

The facts are:

The phrase “Founding Fathers” is a proper noun. It refers to a very specific group of people, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

Yes, there were other important players, such as Jefferson, whose thinking deeply influenced the shape of our nation and who were not in attendance, but the 55 Fathers make up the core.

The denominational affiliation of these men is a matter of public record.

Among the delegates were 28 Episcopalians, eight Presbyterians, seven Congregationalists, two Lutherans, two Dutch Reformed, two Methodists, two Roman Catholics, one unknown and only three deists — Williamson, Wilson and Franklin.

This was at a time when church membership entailed a sworn public confession of Biblical faith. (John Eidsmoe, “Christianity and the Constitution,” Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987, p. 43.)

This is a very revealing tally. This shows that the members of the Constitutional Convention, the most influential group of men shaping the political foundations of our nation, almost were all Christians, 51 of 55, a full 93 percent.

Comments

I 'll start with you very misleading bit about : church membership entailed a sworn public confession of Biblical faith.
Not true in the sense of Biblical truth. The sworn confession was only that there is a god. Nothing about what god. It was used to become a Freemason.

Here it is.
Yet the Master Mason makes a solemn oath on the Bible to "Acknowledge and obey all due signs and summons sent to me from a Master Masons' Lodge... all this I most solemnly and sincerely swear... So help me God" with the penalty of death by mutilation!